German Economist Concludes Refugees Will Ultimately Cost Germany €900 BillionIn contrast to the absurd Keynesian position that refugees will pay for themselves via higher growth rates, German economist Bernd Raffelhüschen estimates that over the long haul Refugees Will Cost Germany €900 brillion.
Exactly so. Although refugees should be helped, the idea that the added labor force (and taxpayers) will help economies is a relic of the time when oil extraction costs were cheap. It's the same outmoded thinking that building still more roads will "stimulate" economies. Those days are over. -- RF

Fitch: More capital budget cuts coming in 2016Another round of budget cuts and more financial trouble are coming for U.S. oil and gas companies next year, debt ratings agency Fitch Ratings said Monday in its 2016 oil and gas outlook.

There is not enough money for this, and there never will be. Keep watching this situation as national economies tank, money disappears, and the legacy of nuclear power turns into an unmitigated global disaster. -- RF

A former HSBC employee was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for aggravated industrial espionage. Although HSBC claims the whistleblower initially stole the information for his own personal financial gain, his revelations exposed international fraud, tax evasion, and money-laundering scams involving thousands of corrupt businessmen and arms dealers.

Certainly, these are laudable goals — sane and humane people would not argue against the attempt to lift millions of humans out of poverty. Unfortunately, there will never be enough cheap energy to accomplish much of this. Meanwhile, thanks to the rising cost of energy extraction, poverty is making a comeback in developed countries like the US, Japan, and the UK. The economic growth needed to float all humans' boats will never come. -- RF

Saudi builder Binladin said to cut about 15,000 jobsConstruction company Saudi Binladin Group plans to cut about 15,000 staff, people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, in a sign of the pressure on the industry as the Saudi government trims spending in response to low oil prices.

Turkish trigger-happy hotheads are to blame for authorizing deadly force when a few wing wags would have served to warn off the Russians – if they were in fact intruding. Turkey is in no position to claim it's the injured party when arms, munitions and logistics support for ISIS has been pouring across its border into Syria for almost five years.

According to the document, reported Reuters, EU interior and justice ministers planned to speak to the European Commission about increasing controls on "non-banking payment methods such as electronic/anonymous payments and virtual currencies and transfers of gold, precious metals, by pre-paid cards."

## Got food? ##Guatemala's Vanishing HarvestsAs diplomats and elected officials around the world debate the best way to confront climate change, Guatemalans are already struggling to adapt to frequent droughts, brutal cold snaps and shrinking harvests.

While Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning and John Kiriakou are vilified for revealing vital information about spying and bombing and torture, a man who conspired with Goldman Sachs to make billions of dollars on the planned failure of subprime mortgages was honored by New York University for his "Outstanding Contributions to Society."Stuck waiting: ground delays at US airports on the rise

## Japan ##Gov't eyes extension of debt-financing lawThe government plans to extend temporary legislation allowing the state to automatically issue debt to fund its annual budget without Diet approval for multiple years, sources close to the matter said Monday.

Talk about kicking the can! Do I need to say how this is going to end? -- RF